ROME — Igor Markov, the pro-Russian Ukrainian "dissident," has been free for approximately one month, and is now awaiting extradition. He has been released from prison, and is now under house arrest at the “golden cell” at the Hotel Iris di Quarto, with an electronic tag tracking his every move, official sources say. 

  Markov, a former member of parliament, was arrested in Sanremo just before Ferragosto, as he was leaving the Hotel de Paris. He was stopped on the basis of a European arrest warrant from Interpol. 

  He and a group of thugs, who were founders of the pro-Russian Ukrainian party, are accused of injuries and violence that took place during an incident in Odessa in 2007. They allegedly attacked some nationalist demonstrators during a procession, and it is for this reason that the Ukrainian authorities want him to be returned to them. 

  However, he is claiming that he is being politically persecuted, and his life in Ukrainian prisons would be in danger. Instead, he hopes to return to Moscow, where he used to live for years, and where, thanks to the Pro-Russian Ukrainian committee, he has close relations with oligarchs, many of whom are close to Putin. 

  Markov was deemed to be too high a flight risk by the judges of the Court of Appeal of Genoa, and it is for this reason that on release from prison, he was placed under house arrest.